Interactions with God #37
When this Interaction happened, I had probably been driving around trying to sell Radio ads for a month. Over all, I don’t remember how long I had been doing it, but I do remember that I wasn’t very good at it. I did sell a few ads, but the base pay was below minimum wage and the commission for the ads were stretched out over the length of the ad contract. Meaning that if the ad was to run for 4 months, I got my commission only after the individual ads were aired, in tiny, small, miniscule increments. Needless to say, I was not rolling in dough. Car trouble, when you are in a position like this, is really not good. Especially when you need your car for work.
My transmission died. Yup, died. In NH you could be stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing but hills and woods around you. By the grace of God, I broke down right near a convenient store. With all the convenience stores all over the place like we have now, this might not seem like a big deal. But back then, where I was…there was nothing around for miles and miles. Yet, here I was broken down right near one.
I called my dad. What else was I going to do? I didn’t really know anyone else to call. He said he would come get me in within the hour. I had also called a transmission place nearby. They were going to send a tow truck to pick up my busted vehicle. So, all I could do was wait.
After I finished my calls, I just stood there awkwardly in front of the store clerk. A wee bit embarrassed and humbled. I noticed the scratch lottery tickets. I noticed the amount on the tickets would pretty much cover the cost to fix my transmission. “Gee, that would be nice!”
The lottery. It is not some great evil many as Christian’s have said over the years. In fact, there really isn’t any great biblical teaching against it at all. Oh, you could take the “be a good steward” thing and apply it to the astronomical odds of actually winning and say it is a bad idea. Yet, so is the stock market most days. Everything has a risk, well, unless you believe that your God is in control. In that case, there is no risk at all. The only thing that would keep me from winning it big at the lottery is not the astronomical odds, but the will of the father. Yes, if He chooses, He could make that happen. He could also give me the ability to fly… Yea, that’s probably not gonna happen. It doesn’t stop me from asking though.
So, back to the scratch ticket. Boy, it would be nice and easy. Money problem. Act of God. Problem solved. All I had to do was spend one dollar. So, I asked Him. “Lord, you are in control of all things. You could give me the money right now to fix my car with just one lottery ticket. But if you are not going to do that, could you at least give me my dollar back?” I bought the ticket.
I won a dollar.